


Alone

by azure_lemon



Category: Im Westen nichts Neues | All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
Genre: Canon Compliant, Feels, Gen, One-Shot, POV First Person, no real plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24509074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azure_lemon/pseuds/azure_lemon
Summary: Paul reconsidering his past and present. The world is shattered, but it's all right.
Kudos: 1





	Alone

It’s autumn, fourth year of this war. I’m not sure if I have strength to fight anymore, but this is the only thing left, only purpose in my short life. After all these horrid thing I’ve seen, things that have become my reality, this is the only way I know. Even if I survive, I know I would never forget what has shaped me, made a man, but not the one I always wanted to be. I’m not even sure if what remember from before war had ever been real. I don’t know many great words. I’m just a soldier, a private, nothing more. Once they said I should be proud and maybe I am in my own way. I know I’m a good soldier, after all. Or maybe I’ve just been lucky, even though I’m not sure it’s luck, to survive. Maybe the real survivors are ones who died long ago, before war twisted them into some human-like creatures. Even if I live to see the end of this madness, I know deep down it will never cease. These scenes, buried in my head, losing all my friends, companions, my real family, made an damage that is impossible to cure. When I left, I had nothing and if I ever come back, I’ll have even less. I still remember, as if it was yesterday, how happy, how joyful I was, so full of hope when I enlisted, next to me were the ones that became my brothers. And now, here I sit, no glory, no reason to be even glad of myself, of what I’ve done. But why despair? My story is no different from the ones of thousands German, French and British boys. Every single one of us had lost somebody. I should feel sorry for families who lost fathers and sons, but I’m afraid there is no much compassion left in me. I can hear voices that once the war is over, the better days will come and I want to believe it. However, I can’t even bear to think about better days without these young man with whom I’ve fought side by side. My parents and my sisters are waiting for me and I feel unworthy of their love, because I know I’ll never be able to understand them and they’ll never be able to understand me. The Paul they knew is gone. The Paul I am now has lost everything and everybody. I am all alone.


End file.
